


Training Day

by CMRandles



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, Iron Man - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: M/M, Romance, Sexual Content, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-03
Updated: 2016-12-03
Packaged: 2018-09-06 06:43:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8738749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CMRandles/pseuds/CMRandles
Summary: For a moment, though, there was a glimmer of hope. And that was what he couldn’t stop thinking about.“We’re like a married couple, you and I,” Tony had observed to him when they were celebrating Thor’s birthday at Avengers Tower. Tony was well into his third martini at the time and loquacious to a degree extreme for even a Stark. “We disagree about money, we argue about how to raise the kids, but at the end of the day we’re good together so we make it work.”Steve had been taken aback. “Are you telling me you love me?”“I’m just saying. There are worse people to be married to.”He did not, Steve observed, say “no”.---In which Steve and Tony engage in a training exercise and get far, far more than they bargained for.





	

It was perhaps not intentional in its design, but nevertheless Washington DC is a city full of shadowy meeting places. Kaitlyn Ross settled herself in one over thirty minutes before the appointed meeting time, watching out with sharp eyes for the sign of anyone approaching. Eventually, her quarry arrived. He was giving off nervousness in waves, twitching and pacing, checking his watch every couple of seconds. Compared to the photo of him she found online this man was a ghost of his former self. His face was drawn and lined and he had lost probably forty pounds that he didn’t need to, reducing him to a skeleton in a suit. Not to mention his hair. It looked to be falling out in chunks leaving unsightly bald patches in unexpected places. 

Even at her worst, when the disease that had eventually ruined her heart was ravaging her body, Kaitlyn had still looked better than this sorry motherfucker. She put a hand to her chest for a moment, feeling the steady thump-thump of the device. It was comforting. 

Kaitlyn let him stew a little longer. The senator pulled out his phone and a moment later her own burner cell vibrated, letting her know he had sent her a message. Probably something along the lines of “WHERE ARE YOU”. He seemed like the kind of guy who would text in complete sentences.

“Senator,” she said in a low voice, stepping out of cover. 

He jumped like a startled deer, whipping around. “How long have you been there?” he demanded. His voice was as high and tight as a guitar string. His eyes went inevitably to her cybernetic enhancements then flicked away in embarrassment, as though he had been staring at her tits.

She shrugged. It was the only answer he would get. 

Fumbling with his suit jacket he withdrew a flash drive and held it out to her. “It’s all there. Every piece of intel I could get, and I don’t need to tell you how hard it was to find.” 

Kaitlyn did not approach. She stared at him levelly, hands in her pockets. 

“Well?” he demanded, giving the device a shake. “What’s wrong?” 

“Did you make the transfer?” she asked. 

He frowned. “No, not yet.” 

“I’ll wait.” 

He gave an aggrieved sigh and pulled out his phone. Kaitlyn watched as he typed and scrolled. “There,” he said after a moment. “It’s done.” 

Kaitlyn took out her own device and checked the notifications. Satisfied, she stepped up and held out her gloved hand. 

So disoriented was the Senator that he forgot what she was looking for. He gazed at her in irritated confusion for a second before remembering the flash drive and handing it over. Kaitlyn could  see why he wasn’t able to handle this operation himself. She tucked the device safely into the pocket of her jeans and started to walk away. 

“Wait,” he cried, chasing after her. “How will I know...when it’s done?” 

She turned back to him, eyebrows raised. “Trust me, you’ll know.” 

  
  


Two weeks later 

 

Tony Stark had been trying his very best to be a reclusive genius hard at work, but his damn phone would not stop ringing. It started up again while he was welding, vibrating like crazy on the work table beside him. He sighed, hoisted up his mask and demanded, “FRIDAY.” 

“Yea, boss?” came her nonchalant reply in that musical voice. 

“Maybe I wasn’t clear when I said ‘no calls’ earlier. Because it seems like I’m still getting calls.” 

“It’s Ms. Potts, boss. She’s getting rather...insistent.” 

“Even better,” Tony groused and grabbed the phone. “Very busy genius enterprises, Tony Stark speaking.” 

“Tony.” One word out of her mouth and he could tell that Pepper was not in a lighthearted mood. 

“You know, there was a time that would have made you laugh, or at least smile,” he said, not without a hint of sadness. 

“You’ve been dodging my calls for days now. I’m really not in the mood to laugh.” 

“Don’t take it personally,” he said, taking off his thick gloves and laying them aside, “I’ve been doing that to everyone.” 

“That doesn’t make me feel better.” 

He did not let himself point out that  _ nothing _ seemed to make her feel better anymore. Instead he just settled back in his chair and awaited the lecture that was sure to follow. 

“Senator Greene was at it again today,” Pepper said in a tired voice. “Did you see?” 

With a couple swipes of his fingers Tony pulled up a video of the Senate committee hearing in question. “I’ve got it right in front of me.” 

Senator Greene, a man so past his prime it was amazing he was still above ground, silently railed at the Senate committee, hands flying left and right. 

“It was more of the same-” 

“Boohoo, the Avengers are taking all of my sweet sweet Deparment of Defense funding?” 

“Exactly. It doesn’t look like he’s going away.” 

“So what? Neither are we. Let him waste what little breath he has left.” 

Pepper was silent, and not in a good way. “This is serious, Tony. He is doing his best to cause problems for you and the rest of the team. And that causes problems for me, or more specifically, for Stark Industries stockholders.” 

“What do you want me to do?” Tony asked, suddenly weary. “The guy is one shake away from shuffling off the mortal coil. This is one problem that will absolutely take care of itself. Besides, I thought good ol’ Captain America was down there trying to smooth things over,”

“He didn’t get anywhere.” 

“And you think I will?” Tony asked. “I mean, I’m flattered that you think I can be more compelling than the pinnacle of human perfection and all-” 

“It’s not that. I’m going to throw him some private contracts,” Pepper said, and Tony realized that she had  _ finally _ gotten to the point. 

“What kind of contracts?” 

There was a long silence that he liked not at all. “Defense contracts, Tony.” 

“You mean weapons,” he added. 

“I mean, something that a man with his career would be interested in.” 

“Which means  _ weapons _ .” 

“Maybe, but-” 

“For Christ sake, Pepper!” he exploded. 

“Tony, we need to make this go away!” she said loudly, which for Pepper was as close to yelling as she ever came. 

“Not like this. No. Not an option.” 

“Why did I know you were going to react like this?” she said with savage anger. “I tell you to solve the problem, you ignore me, and now you don’t like the solution that I’ve come up with.” 

“Because it’s a bad solution!” 

“Well, guess what? It’s not up to you. Is it? You made me CEO and that’s that.” 

Tony bit back his fury. “I still have a controlling interest in the company.” 

“Well, we’ll see about that, won’t we.” 

The line went dead. 

“Did that really just happen?” Tony asked the empty room. 

“You’ve got another call, boss,” FRIDAY informed him. 

“For the love of -  _ who _ ? Who dares disturb me now?” 

“Captain Steve Rogers.” 

“Oh, fantastic. It would give me great pleasure to completely ignore him.” 

“He says it’s important,” FRIDAY insisted. 

“Even better,” Tony replied, snapping his welding mask back into place and lighting the torch. 

  
  


Phone calls were one thing, but it was pretty hard to ignore someone banging on your door hard enough to cave the damn thing in. Tony was deep into engineering mode and so even the series of loud crashes from upstairs didn’t rouse him right away. It took FRIDAY reporting that there had been a security breach to get him to look up. 

“Where?” he asked. 

She showed him a blueprint of the house and indicated a red dot moving with speed and purpose towards the lab. Laid on top of that was security camera footage which identified the angry dot as Steve Rogers. 

“You seriously need to work on your temper,” Tony announced when the super soldier inevitably burst into his lab. 

“Where were you today, Tony?” The big blonde demanded. He didn’t look happy. In fact, he looked rather  _ un _ happy and while Tony was used to being on the other side of Steve’s ‘I’m not fucking around’ face, he couldn’t figure out why he was wearing it now. 

“Uh, here?” Tony answered, spreading his arms to indicate the state of his lab. “Where I live?” 

Steve set his jaw. “You forgot.” 

“Probably,” Tony admitted easily enough. 

“You and I were supposed to meet at SHIELD HQ today for training exercises.” 

Tony waved that away with exactly the respect it deserved. 

“This is important, Tony. You and I need to work on our communication, as if this episode wasn’t proof enough by itself.” 

“No, I need to do my work, Capsicle, and you need to do yours. No communication necessary. We’ve worked it out every other time that push came to shove, haven’t we?” he continued when it looked like the soldier was going to object further. “If you’re trying to tick some box on some government form I can always make it look like we did our homework. Just say the word.” 

“I don’t want to make it look like we did it, Tony, I want to actually do it.” 

“Heh. Do it,” Tony snickered. 

Steve’s cheeks colored. He stalked over and forcibly removed the piece of tech Tony had been fiddling with from the genius’s hands. Very much in the other man’s personal space he said, “I need you to take this seriously.” 

Tony stared back at him. “Why?” 

“Because lives are on the line, Tony. Every time we assemble, every time we fight, we are all risking our necks. And if you refuse to take that seriously then I won’t be on a team with you.” 

Tony bristled. “Well, no one is forcing you. I’m sure you could go back to selling war bonds and it would be no great loss.” 

Steve’s jaw clenched. “Watch it,” he growled. 

“Are SHIELD’s stupid training exercises this important to you?” Tony asked, turning his back so he could keep working, though it was admittedly difficult to concentrate with the other man so close. 

“It’s not just about the training exercises and you know that. You’ve been reclusive lately, skipping meetings all over the place, not answering calls or texts. I need to know that you’ll show up when I-we need you.” 

Tony did not miss the hasty jog from “I” to “we” in the previous statement. He sighed, running a hand through his unwashed hair. “I’m sorry I missed the training thing today, okay? I’ll make it up to you.” 

“I was hoping you would say that,” Steve said, his voice positively dripping with dark sexual promise. The shock of it made Tony turn and stare at him in frank astonishment. “We’re rescheduled for tomorrow.” 

“Oh, gosh dang it, wouldn’t you know that’s when I’m supposed to have my gallbladder removed.” 

“Tony,” Steve answered in a warning tone. 

“All right, all right,” Tony conceded, raising his hands in a gesture of defeat. “But I’ll have you know that just because it has a silly name does not mean that the gallbladder is not an important organ.” 

“Oh? What does it do?” Steve asked, leaning against the table and awaiting the answer. 

“It...uh...galls?” Tony ventured. 

Steve laughed, his expression softening into something closer to fondness. The sight of it coupled with the semi-hardon he’d gotten during Steve’s earlier innuendo, made Tony distinctly uncomfortable. He was not supposed to be getting all warm and flirty and aroused with Captain America. 

“Well, since we’re supposed to be teambuilding anyway, wanna go grab a burger?” Steve suggested, compounding Tony’s discomfort. 

Tony’s stomach attempted to answer for him by emitting a loud gurgle. Steve smiled crookedly and that was  _ almost _ enough to convince him all on its own. Almost. 

“Can’t,” he said shortly, moving so that he put the table in between them. “I’m buried in work here.” 

“Oh,” Steve said and Tony very carefully did not look at him. He was a strong man and he had been through many trials, but he would not be able to withstand the sight of Captain America looking like a kicked puppy. It would break him. “Some other time, then.” 

“It’s a date,” Tony said casually, turning his focus back to work. 

“See you tomorrow, then.” 

“I don’t suppose you’ll let me forget again,” Tony conceded. 

“Nope,” Steve agreed, and headed out of the room. “Oh, and sorry about your door,” he added. 

Tony glanced at the security footage which showed a pile of wreckage where his front door had previously stood. “Don’t be. Happens all the time.” 

  
  


It wasn’t like Steve to brood this way. He had always been a happy person, upbeat and generally optimistic even when he was a scrawny asthmatic wimp. But lately it was like a dark cloud had descended over him. He was going through the motions of his everyday life, unpredictable and dangerous as it was, but finding no pleasure in it. Part of that was because of Bucky. He was always in the back of Steve’s mind, his friend and brother calling out to him from a place so far away it could not be reached. But more than that, he was lonely. 

There was the team, and that was great, but it wasn’t the same. They were his family, the people he needed to keep safe and protect at all costs. What he was missing was love. The romantic kind. The kind that kept you up talking for hours about who-cares-what. The kind that made you want to do crazy stupid stuff that  _ wouldn’t _ put your life at risk. The kind that kept you up at night thinking about the other person and not in the way Steve lost sleep worrying about Buck. His life was heavy with responsibility, burdened by consequence, and without love’s lightness it was beginning to wear him down. 

“People like us don’t usually get that,” Natasha explained one night when she was drinking red wine and getting philosophical. “It’s part of the job.” 

Steve knew she was right. Certainly, he would never find happiness with a civilian. It would be too much of a risk for that person and too exposing for him. Unless his love interest could take care of themselves their relationship would be doomed before it even began. 

For a moment, though, there had been a glimmer of hope. And that was what he couldn’t stop thinking about. 

“We’re like a married couple, you and I,” Tony had observed to him when they were celebrating Thor’s birthday at Avengers Tower. Tony was well into his third martini at the time and loquacious to a degree extreme for even a Stark. “We disagree about money, we fight about how to raise the kids, but at the end of the day we’re good together so we make it work.” 

Steve had been taken aback. “Are you telling me you love me?” 

“I’m just saying. There are worse people to be married to.” 

He did not, Steve observed, say “no”. 

Tony had looked at him with a cheeky grin, all dimples and twinkles and promises he didn’t plan to keep. Steve figured that if he were a woman Tony would have tried to take him to bed then, and he would have gone willingly. The idea, once it had entered his mind, refused to leave. It dug in back there and projected steamy mental images at the worst possible times. He was blushing a lot more these days and it wasn’t because he was ill, though Sam did ask if he was feeling all right. 

Now as he stood waiting for Iron Man to arrive at SHIELD HQ the notion reemerged from his traitorous brain. He heard through the grapevine that Tony and Pepper called it quits (“mostly Pepper,” Sam had whispered). And rather than feeling compassionate and sympathetic all he could think was:  _ this might be my only shot. _ He felt guilty and ashamed of himself for being so opportunistic, but hard as he tried he could not seem to set his feelings for Tony aside. Now he faced an additional hurdle, and one he did not know how to overcome - Tony wanted nothing to do with him. He’d tried several times to initiate a casual hang-out, letting nothing of his ulterior motives show through, and Tony had utterly dismissed him every time. He couldn’t even get the genius’s attention with talk of interesting work projects, something that had  _ always _ worked in the past. Tony seemed determined to become a recluse and Steve had no idea how to dissuade him. 

There was a noise from overhead and Steve glanced up to see Iron Man descending from the sky. He landed a few feet away from his teammate and raised a hand in greeting. “Beautiful day for a total waste of our time,” Tony said. 

“You’re late,” Steve pointed out. 

Tony ignored him. “Where are all the suits?” 

As if on cue a large black SUV pulled up to the curb, rolling down its tinted windows. A woman with dark hair swept over half her face and a severe expression sat behind the driver’s seat. “Gentlemen, get in.” 

“My mom always told me not to take rides from strangers,” Tony said, flipping up the face plate and leaning into the open window. “You’ll have to tell me your name first.” 

The agent behind the wheel did not smile. Her lips did not give so much as a twitch. “I’m Agent Ross. I’ll be running your training exercise today.” 

“You know, you and I could ditch the war relic here and run our own training exercise,” Tony suggested in a tone that might give cavities. 

Agent Ross regarded him evenly for a moment. Tony stared back at her. Meanwhile, Steve tried not to let his feelings get hurt and failed. Then the agent withdrew a sleek pistol from her shoulder holster and pointed it in Tony’s face. 

“Or I could shoot you,” she offered. 

“Okay,” Tony said, raising his hands and snapping the faceplate back down. “Getting in the car now. Shotgun,” he announced, opening the passenger door. 

Steve sighed and tried to shove both his shield and himself into the backseat of the vehicle. 

  
  


Agent Maria Hill looked away from her screen for ten minutes and when she glanced back up Captain America had vanished. She just caught sight of a car leaving the compound, a black Escalade. 

“Weren’t Cap and Iron Man just here?” she asked one of the junior agents working in the room. 

The young woman nodded. “They were here to rendezvous for their training exercise.” 

Hill frowned. “Training exercise?” 

“Yes, it was rescheduled from yesterday. ” 

Another frown. “Who’s running it?” 

The agent turned and started typing on a nearby console. After a moment she said, “An Agent Ross, ma’am.” 

Hill sat back and crossed her arms. No one had told her about this training exercise, which wasn’t exactly out of the ordinary but still struck her as odd. The Avengers had been working as more of an independent enterprise lately after the collapse of SHIELD. Something about the situation felt wrong. 

“Get me video feed of the exercise,” she ordered.

The young woman nodded and turned away to start carrying out the order. Maria watched and felt the bad feeling settle on her shoulders, preparing to stay. 

 

An hour later the heroes found themselves in a warehouse which had been modified to suit a unique purpose. The stone-faced (and very uninterested in Tony Stark) Agent Ross led them into the building and left them alone in an empty anteroom. It was small enough that the two men were forced to stand shoulder-to-shoulder in uncomfortable silence while she booted up whatever protocol SHIELD had put in place. While they waited Tony fidgeted and started singing “Highway to Hell”. Steve, meanwhile, tried to think of something to say. 

“I, uh, haven’t seen you around lately,” he eventually managed and then gave himself a mental kick.  _ Smooth, _ Bucky teased him from inside his mind. 

“Been busy,” Tony responded, his voice modulated by the suit. 

“You know what they say about all work and no play,” Steve said. 

Tony turned, expression inscrutable behind the mask. “I have heard something about that. Why, you offering to show a fella a good time, soldier?” 

Steve blushed crimson and he knew, just  _ knew _ , that inside the suit Tony was grinning. “I wouldn’t know a good time if it bit me.” 

“Aw, that’s not true. I’m sure you and your squad got up to some shenanigans back in the day.” 

“Yeah, drinking in foreign bars, mostly. Though it didn’t do me any good.” 

“See, that sounds off the chain, Cap. If I want to stay home, drink some tea, put my feet up, watch Matlock, and get to bed by eight-thirty I know exactly who to call.” 

Steve blanched and did not reply. A moment later a voice crackled loudly over the speakers set into the ceiling, making him jump. 

“Gentlemen, this is Agent Ross. The training exercise will now commence. Your objective is to make it to the other end of the warehouse as a team.” 

“But what are we going to do with the other twenty-three hours and forty-five minutes of our day?” Tony sparked. 

“Begin,” Ross boomed. 

Nothing happened. Steve waited, holding his shield in a defensive position and looking around. He and Tony turned in a slow circle, then stopped and glanced at one another.

“Well, this is boring,” Tony said. 

Steve examined the walls of the room, looking for any cracks or inconsistencies that might signal a secret door. The walls were perfectly flat and even throughout. “Huh,” he said. 

There was a grinding noise and both of them snapped to attention. A small panel in the ceiling drew back and out of it fell two boxes. They landed on the floor and bounced, unbroken, in front of the two men. Steve hesitated, then picked one up. It was perfectly smooth like a stone, though it was obviously made out of plastic, and about the size of his palm. He shook it and something inside rattled. 

“Ooh, there are prizes inside,” Tony cried and set about trying to destroy his. He smashed it repeatedly against the wall, producing no result. 

Steve turned his over in his hands, looking for some clue as to how the device opened. The only area of interest was a divot in the casing on one side that almost looked like...He laid the box flat in the palm of one hand and pressed his thumb against the divot. Immediately a panel on the side of the box opened and he  was able to slide it out. 

“No fair!” Tony cried. “How’d you do that?”

“It’s a fingerprint scanner,” Steve said. “You’ll have to take your gauntlet off.” 

“Nothing shady about that at all,” Tony replied. 

“It’s a training exercise, Tony. They’re not trying to kill us.” 

“We are talking about the same SHIELD here, right?” Tony said, but he was already taking off his gauntlet, lying his own box flat on the palm of his other hand. 

As he worked, Steve examined the item he found in his box. It was a small metal piece with a ring on one end and a round key-like shape on the other. He was about to ask Tony what the genius made of it when the other man let out a yelp of pain. 

“The damn thing bit me!” he cried, tossing the box to the floor. “Piece of shit,” he growled and stomped on it with his boot. 

“Are you okay?” Steve asked, taking his hand and examining the injured finger. 

“Yes, mother,” Tony snapped, snatching his hand away. He shoved it back into the gauntlet and addressed his complaint to the ceiling. “Your stupid toy is broken. Good quality control.” 

There was no response from Agent Ross. 

“What’d you get?’ Tony asked and Steve held up the metal piece. 

“FRIDAY, analyze,” Tony ordered at the same exact moment that one wall slid away to reveal a hallway. “Oh, look. Let’s go.” 

Tony made it to the door first, stepping through into the dimly lit corridor beyond. The moment his armored foot hit the floor, however, the wall slid back into place. It moved incredibly fast and Steve didn’t even have time to react, much less push his way through. They were separated now, closed off from one another. A low hissing noise emanated from over his head and Steve glanced up. 

“Cap?” Tony said, his voice muffled by the wall between them. 

“There’s some kind of gas being pumped into the room,” Steve yelled back. 

“Some people have all the fun,” Tony replied. “I’ve got a pattern on the back of the door here, a series of nine raised dots in a grid. Oh, and...wire? It looks like wire in a pile on the floor.” 

Steve tucked the weird metal piece into his pocket. He figured they would find out its purpose later on. He glanced around, looking for any kind of clue as to what they were supposed to do now. 

“The grid is a circuit,” Tony said from the other side. “I have to wrap the wire around the conduits to close the circuit. Are you serious, SHIELD? This is the best you can do? A five year-old could solve this. A  _ sleeping _ five year-old.”

Steve waited impatiently, staring hard at the wall as though he could see through it. He did not develop spontaneous x-ray vision, so he was forced to wait for Tony to communicate his status, which he did not do. Steve could hear him working on the other side of the wall and muttering curses under his breath. 

“What’s the status, Iron Man?” he demanded after the waiting became too much. 

“It’s not working. Why isn’t it working? This doesn’t make any sense.” 

Steve sighed. He could see the gas filling the room now, leaving a fog over everything. He was starting to feel a little light-headed, like he had been running for too long on an empty stomach. He looked away from the wall for a moment then looked back and that was when he noticed something new. 

“There’s dots on this side too. They’re very faint,” Steve took off his glove and ran a hand over the wall feeling the indentations under his fingertips. “They’re in a grid.” 

“I’ll bet they match the ones on this side. Shit, that means you have to close the circuit on your side too. Do you have anything you can use as a conductor? Anything metal?” 

Steve glanced around, then down. “I have the shield.” 

“Oh yeah, genius, great idea. A very precise instrument is that.” 

“You could just say ‘that won’t work, Steve’,” he suggested irritably. 

“That won’t work, Steve. Find something else. And you’d better hurry. FRIDAY says that your side of the wall is getting pretty weird.” 

He cast about for anything that might serve their purpose. It was getting difficult to focus. Steve blinked a few times trying to clear his vision. He walked around the small room, feeling the walls for some clue and inadvertently stepped on the remains of Tony’s crushed prize box. When he looked down he saw a sparkle of metal protruding from the mess. He snatched up a long thin piece of silver wire and smiled. 

“Found something,” he yelled through the wall. 

“Great, now do as I tell you and we’ll be out of here in no time.” 

Tony started firing orders at him and Steve did his best to comply. His brain was getting fuzzy and his hands were clumsy. He followed Tony’s instructions as best as possible, pressing the thin wire against the indentations where he was told. He was rewarded with Tony’s voice, which sounded suddenly husky even through the helmet, saying incredibly dirty things to him. 

“Yeah, that’s it. More of that. Yeah, yeah. Just like that, Steve. Now just...come on for Daddy you-” 

Steve fumbled the wire. 

“Damn it!” Tony cried from the other side. “What happened?” 

“I…” Steve’s mouth was dry. His cock was desperately hard inside his uniform. He shook his head, trying to clear it. “It’s the gas. I can’t concentrate.” 

“Well, try harder. We were almost there.” 

Steve bit back his own unkind response and tried to stay focused. The room suddenly felt very warm. He was sweating. His erection was not dissipating even as he tried to think of baseball and cold showers. His arousal was a terrible distraction on top of the disorientation, the heat, and Tony's orders that were not making any sense. 

“Steve?”

“Yeah?” he answered dreamily. 

“You just have to do one more thing with no mistakes. Okay?” 

Steve nodded, forgetting that his counterpoint couldn’t see him. 

“Keep it together, man.” 

Steve shook his foggy head and concentrated on holding the wire in place. His hands were starting to cramp from being in the same position for so long. His eyes were watering. The world was getting blurry around the edges. 

“Tony,” he said and his own voice sounded very far away.

“Just one last piece, Steve. You can do it.” Tony’s encouragement was a tiny whisper over the roar in Steve’s ears. 

He moved his fingers, pushing the end of the thin wire into what he thought was the right spot. There came a sound like a pop can opening and the wall slid open. Steve staggered, fell, and was caught by Iron Man. 

“Hey, man,” Tony said, letting the super soldier lean heavily on him as he coughed and spluttered. He snapped the faceplate up and frowned with concern. “You good?” 

Steve nodded, trying to stand on his own, but couldn’t quite manage it. Tony wrapped an arm around his waist and held him fast. 

“A little much for a training drill, don’t you think?” Tony said in the direction of the ceiling, scowling. 

“Your next task is through the door,” Agent Ross responded. Her voice was flat and emotionless. 

Steve’s eyes stopped watering and he came back to himself with remarkable speed. It was a testament to his own sap that he let Tony hold onto him for few seconds longer than needed. Eventually, he straightened up and Tony stepped away. His expression was still grave. Steve gave him a quizzical look and Tony shook his head. 

“Let’s go,” he said, closing the faceplate. “We’ll win the Tri-Wizard Tournament yet!” 

Steve nodded and let the reference, which was completely over his head, pass. 

  
  
  


Maria Hill had gotten busy with other business and was not paying attention to the video feed on her monitor. She glanced up in time to see Captain America stagger through a doorway into the waiting arms of his teammate. They stood in conference for few minutes, then seemed to pull themselves together. The bad feeling was still there, riding on her shoulder and refusing to be dislodged. Everything looked above-board so far, though Cap did seem to be hurting when he emerged from the first task. He seemed fine now, though, so what was she so worried about? 

She told herself to get back to work and turned away from the screen again. 

  
  


“Ready?” Steve asked, hand on the handle of the door at the end of the hall. 

Tony shrugged, which looked bizarre in the armor. Steve pulled the door open. 

Nothing happened. 

They stepped into the room, which was large and empty, well-lit by florescent lights on the ceiling. There was a large grid drawn on the floor, red and black square tiles laid out almost like…

“Are we gonna play giant checkers?” Tony asked. 

Steve was quiet, walking slowly around the room and avoiding the tiled spaces. He glanced up when Tony took off, flying up to the ceiling to have a look around there. 

“Anything?” he asked. 

“FRIDAY says that there are a bunch of secret doors in here. There’s…” 

“What?” Steve asked urgently. 

“Nothing. Nevermind. Ignore me,” Tony snapped, coming back down to land on one of the black squares. “King me?” he asked the empty room. 

One of the secret doors opened then and a green shape emerged from the shadows. 

“Are you kidding me?” Tony asked, laughing. 

The robot, moving along the floor steadily on its wheels, was shaped like a giant game piece. It was fashioned in a vaguely humanoid way with a head and a large oval body. It approached from the north and settled itself on the board across from Iron Man. 

“Are we gonna play or what?” he teased. 

“Tony,” Steve said. Compartments were opening all over the room now and similar pieces assembled themselves on the board. Not checkers, he thought. “It’s-” 

A panel opened on the front of the green game piece and it opened fire. All sound was lost in a hail of gunfire. Iron Man took off, dodging the rounds in the air. The barrel protruding from the green game piece followed, shooting at him continuously until Tony flew to the other side, behind the army of multi-colored pieces. Steve peeked out from behind the shield and waited to see what would happen next. 

“What’s your status, Iron Man?” he asked automatically. 

“Steve,” he said in a hollow voice. “Those were live rounds.” 

Steve felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. “What?!” he exclaimed. 

“Hey!” Tony yelled at the ceiling. “You’re shooting at us with real ammunition, asshole! I thought this was a training exercise!” 

The pieces finished moving have assumed their positions. Steve glanced at them. “It’s a chess board.” 

Tony looked at him. “What?” 

“It’s chess, not checkers. Each color represents a different piece. The red ones are pawns, blue is rook, purple is knight, yellow is bishop. I think the green one is the queen.” 

“Which means that this fella is the king,” Tony said, laying a hand on the golden piece at the end of the board. He charged up his glove repulsor. 

“Tony,” Steve started. “I don’t think-” 

“Sorry your majesty,” Tony said and fired. 

Several things happened at once then. The only thing Steve noticed was that one of the rooks shot out a tendril of electricity that connected with Iron Man and sent him sprawling in a smoking heap. Steve ducked as bullets ricocheted throughout the room, holding the shield in front of him as he tried to get to Tony. The assault continued for a few more harrowing moments before falling silent. Steve avoided setting foot on the chessboard and skirted around it at a run to where Tony lay still on the ground. 

He skidded to a stop, setting the shield aside and flipping Iron Man onto his back. “Tony!” he yelled. 

“I’m here,” Tony said, his voice muffled inside the suit. “Armor is fried. Get me out of here the old fashioned way, will you?” 

Steve took the hint and dug his fingers into the armor, pulling it away with a grunt. He took off the faceplate first and was enormously relieved to see Tony’s face. He hadn’t realized until that moment how badly panicked he had been by the sight of his friend lying unmoving on the floor. 

“I don’t think this is a training exercise,” Tony said, his expression grave. 

“No,” Steve agreed, and made quick work of the rest of the armor pieces.  _ When I pictured ripping his clothes off, this isn’t really what I had in mind _ , he thought to himself and actually smiled. 

“You have a very strange reaction to life-threatening situations,” Tony observed. 

“Sorry,” he said immediately and tried to drag his attention back to the present. “What do you think is going on?” 

Tony, clad now in only jeans and a t-shirt, accepted Steve’s help getting to his feet and looked at the situation with fresh eyes. “I’d say someone co-opted this training exercise and turned it into the set of Saw.” 

“Is that a show?” Steve asked. 

“Movie. Psychopath creates impossible, or nearly impossible, challenges for people who have to figure out how to escape in order to save their own lives.” 

Steve frowned. “Sounds awful.” 

“Pretty much.” 

Tony’s face suddenly went pale and he staggered. Steve shot out an arm and caught him. “What was that?” he asked. 

“Nothing. I just...I got dizzy all of a sudden.” 

“Let me see your finger,” Steve demanded. “The one where you got stuck by that box.” 

Tony obediently held up his hand, keeping one eye focused on the murderous chess set. He shifted his gaze to the wound, however, when he heard Steve’s gasp. “Oh fuck,” Tony breathed. The area around the tiny pinprick was red and inflamed, swollen to nearly twice its normal size. 

“Something is very wrong here,” Steve breathed. 

“And now I’ve been poisoned.” 

They looked at each other, and then in unison stared up at the ceiling where their captor was no doubt watching their progress. 

  
  


“What happened here?” Maria demanded, pointing at the monitor which had, up until a moment ago, displayed the progress of Iron Man and Captain America through their training exercise. Now, however, the screen was completely blank. 

Several junior agents jumped on their consoles and started typing. Maria watched, arms crossed, brow furrowed with concern. Just before the screen cut out it had looked like Iron Man was...electrocuted? Maybe it was just a harmless shock, but it didn’t seem likely given the way he flew across the room. 

“The feed has been cut at the source,” one of the agents announced. 

Maria went cold all over. “Get a team out there. Now.” 

  
  


“So, what’s the plan?” Tony yelled at the ceiling. “You gonna give us the whole Bond villain ultimatum speech or are you going to branch out and be original?” 

“Tony,” Steve warned, his eyes on the chess pieces. 

“If you wanted to kill us you could have just locked us in the first room and piped in poison,” Tony said loudly. “So, what’s the plan Agent Ross, if that is your real name.” 

“That would have only killed me,” Steve pointed out. “You’ve got a filtration system in the suit.” 

“Okay, well, I’m out of it now and it’s not raining fire or anything. So, there must be something she wants. Just hurry up and name it. We’re very busy men and-” 

One of the pawn pieces fired a shot. It winged Steve, grazing his leg just above the knee. He didn’t think, just grabbed Tony and ducked them both behind the shield. No further gunshots followed. 

“Shit,” Tony said when he saw the wound in Steve’s leg. He immediately started ripping apart his t-shirt to make a bandage. 

“Just gotta run your mouth, don’t you,” Steve said through gritted teeth. 

“I’m trying to get us out of here,” Tony shot back, taking the strip of cloth and tying it tightly around Steve’s leg. The soldier hissed in pain. “I think the pawns only get one shot. They’re expendable, after all.” 

“What’s the plan?” Steve asked, meeting his eyes. Tony seemed surprised by the question. 

“I thought you might have one, actually,” he admitted. “You’re the one in charge.” 

Steve sighed. “You only say that when we’re in danger.” 

“Well, we  _ are _ in danger, aren’t we?”

Steve considered. Already the pain in his leg was lessening as his advanced body healed. “You’re right. She doesn’t want us dead or she would have found another way to take care of that. We were following obediently and she could have used that to end us right from the start. So, she’s trying to extract something from us but doesn’t want to tell us what just yet.” 

“Right,” Tony said impatiently, glancing over the shield at the chess pieces that were still unmoving. “What do we know about this chick?” 

“Nothing,” Steve admitted. “I feel like an idiot just going along with all this. I didn’t ask her for identification or anything.” 

“Not your fault,” Tony said dismissively. 

“I should have known better, after everything that’s happened.” 

“Listen,” Tony said, laying a hand on his arm. His fingers were warm. “We need to concentrate on either getting out of here or getting some help. You can beat yourself up about it later if you want to.” 

“Can you make a distress call?” Steve asked. 

Tony growled in frustration and pulled out his phone. “I am so  _ stupid _ ! Why didn’t I think of that earlier?” 

“Now who’s beating themselves up?”

“Damn. Nothing. The electricity must have fried this too. I take it the comms system in your helmet isn’t working?” 

Steve shook his head. “I tried it earlier.” 

“Shit. Well, looks like we’re on our own, Cap.” 

Steve met his eyes. Tony’s expression was pinched, but he was clearly trying to put a brave face on. “You’re a genius, right? That means you’re good at chess.” 

“I will accept your offensive stereotype because, in this case, it happens to be true.” 

Steve rose, staying close to Tony’s side and holding the shield in front of them. “I think it’s our move.” 

  
  


Tony was starting to sweat. Of course, it was appropriate to do so in a situation where your life was threatened and there was no clear path to salvation, but it was more than just that.  He blinked, trying to clear his hazy vision, and tried to get his mind in gear. 

“It’s hardly fair for us to play without the full board,” he groused. “Two against sixteen? Seriously.” 

“I’m looking for suggestions, Tony,” Steve said. His voice was tight with impatience. 

“Okay, okay,” Tony replied. “That one already blew its load, so to speak,” He pointed at the pawn in the center. “See if you can take it out with your shield.” 

Steve hesitated, but after a moment he hurtled his shield at the pawn, which dropped to the ground without a fight. Tony braced himself for some kind of retaliation from the other pieces but nothing happened. 

“Okay, good. Great. Excellent,” he said as Steve retrieved the shield and hurried back to his side. “Now we’re getting somewhere.” 

It was a series of trial and error. Tony approached it like he would any other chess game (albeit one where he was only playing with two pieces) and they slowly sussed out the abilities of each of the pieces. Each of the pawns was a derringer with one single shot to fire. Steve was able to draw their fire quickly and knock all of them out without much fanfare, thanks to his shield. They determined that the rooks each got one shot of electricity in a single direction before they were used up. The knights got three gunshots each. The bishops fired darts and Tony was quite sure he did not want to find out what happened if he got stuck with one. The queen seemed to have all of the capabilities of her followers at once, which was a terrifying prospect indeed. They both ducked behind the shield as electricity and bullets came flying from her at once and decided she was best dealt with last. 

Tony picked up the discarded pawns and moved them to the other side of the board. He didn’t have a lot of tools, but once he got a look at their inner workings he had a sense of how to proceed. 

“Get me one of those rooks,” he told Steve. 

The soldier obediently drew fire from one of the pieces then knocked it down and dragged it over to where Tony was tinkering. Then he hovered nearby to watch, standing much too close. Tony didn’t move away, though. For once, Steve’s presence at his side was comforting rather than distracting or frustrating. It did gall him to think that he might not have made it out of here were it not for the super soldier, but it also made him glad. 

Using one of the discarded gauntlets from his suit and some spare bits as tools, Tony cobbled together something he thought might do the job. 

“What is it?” Steve asked when he was finished and slipping the device onto his hand. 

“A handheld EMP,” Tony said quietly. 

Steve nodded, smiling. He looked at Tony with admiration and respect, two things the other man very much liked to see on his face. 

“Here goes nothing. Prepare for bedlam,” Tony said, standing behind Steve and bracing the gauntlet on his shoulder. “Three...two...one!” 

He fired. There was a disruption in the air like a ripple moving through space and on the other end of it a bishop fell down. Steve grinned. “You did it!” 

Tony fired again and one by one all the pieces toppled over, harmless as the toys they were modeled after. Finally it was just them and the king. 

“Do you think this is really as straightforward as it seems?” Steve asked. 

Tony shrugged. “Only one way to find out.” 

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a loud voice said over the speakers. 

Tony pulled his hand back just in time. “She speaks,” he said. 

“You knock that piece out and you’ll die, Mr. Stark,” Agent Ross said. Tony felt a chill go down his back. “I dosed you with a lethal poison that will kill you in a matter of hours. The only antidote is inside that chess piece. There’s only one way to get it out and if you use the EMP you’ll lock it away forever. You’ll be dead before anyone on the outside even knows you’re gone.” 

Tony stepped back, frowning, and looked at Steve. The soldier looked even more frightened than Tony felt. A powerful wave of dizziness overtook Tony and he had to sit down. “Why go through all of this?” he asked her. “Why not just kill me and have done with it if that’s what you wanted? Why the elaborate play?” 

“I don’t want to kill you,” her booming voice replied. 

“Could’ve fooled me,” Tony grunted. 

“I want something from you. From both of you.” 

“What do you want?’ Steve asked. He knelt beside Tony, looking at him with concern. 

“Now’s not the time,” Agent Ross replied smoothly. 

“Damn it! Enough with the games. Just tell me what you’re after!” Tony yelled. 

There was no response. 

“Fuck!” Tony yelled, putting his head in his hands. “I can’t think straight.” 

Steve’s hand was on his shoulder. “We’re going to figure it out, Tony.” 

He nodded. Steve sounded so sure, so confident. Even as Tony’s head was pounding and his chest felt squeezed he knew that Steve wasn’t going to let him down. Steve never let anyone down. 

As if reading his mind, Steve said in a low voice, “I’m not going to let you die.” 

Tony laid his hand over Steve’s on his own shoulder and squeezed. Then he got shakily to his feet, stripping off the gauntlet as he did so. “Let’s get to work on this guy,” he said, indicating the chess piece. “Maybe there’s a game of Operation on the inside.” 

  
  
  


Maria Hill’s phone rang. She answered it before the first ring had finished, “Yes?” 

“Ma’m, they’re not here.” 

“What?” 

“We’re at the training site, ma’am and there is no one here.” 

“Damn,” Hill swore, her mind racing. “The perpetrator must have taken them somewhere else and redirected the camera feed. Open the video footage we have,” she barked at someone else in the car and they went to work. “Get teams out to all of our properties in the area.” 

“But ma’am, that’s-” 

“Do it,” she said and terminated the call. 

The agent spun the laptop so she could see the grainy security-camera footage. Hill watched intently, her eyes searching for any sort of clue as to where two of the nation’s most important men had just been spirited off to. 

  
  


“We need to get this thing open.” 

“You need to sit down,” Steve insisted, all but forcing Tony to the ground. “You’re swaying on your feet.” 

“I’m fine,” Tony barked. “Stop mothering me.” 

“You’re dying, Tony,” Steve shot back, “I think I’m allowed.” 

Tony rolled the king onto its side and was running his hands over the piece looking for any imperfections in the housing. His face was pale, sweaty, and intent. Steve thought his condition had worsened considerably now that they were no longer in immediate danger. He felt a stab of fear in his gut and pushed it away. They would figure this out. 

“Fuck! How does this damn thing open?” Tony swore, turning the device over frantically with shaking hands. “Here,” he thrust it at Steve and turned away, panting. He held a hand to his chest and Steve could only stare helplessly. 

He turned his attention to the game piece, turning it over in his hands and finding, as Tony had, that the housing was without a flaw. He looked at the base of the device and saw only a tiny shallow divot roughly the diameter of a tic-tac. “Tony,” he said and angled the device so that the other man could see. 

Tony leaned over, breathing in a labored way that Steve didn’t like at all. “What good is that?” he asked dismissively. “Maybe I can…” he started to get up, faltered, and fell heavily on his side. 

“Sit down,” Steve ordered, “Tell me what you need and I’ll get it.” 

“My...suit. Jesus, Steve. I’m not gonna make it.” 

“What part of your suit?” Steve demanded, ignoring for the moment the other half of Tony’s statement. 

“Tools. I need something to use for leverage.” 

A light went on in Steve’s brain. “Oh hell,” he said and fumbled with the pouch on his belt. He pulled out the metal piece he had found in the box back in the first room. He all but snatched the king back from Tony and fitted the metal piece into the base of the device. 

“You had that the whole time?” Tony asked incredulously, though his voice was barely more than a whisper. 

“I forgot,” Steve confessed followed by a muted cry of triumph when the device fell open, cleaving down the middle. It was empty. “What…?” 

“Shit,” Tony breathed over his shoulder. He gave a groan and lay down on the floor on his back. “I’m done. That’s it.” 

“Shut up,” Steve snapped at him. “Shut up, Tony. That’s not-” 

The wall behind them slid open and Agent Ross stepped in. Steve jumped to his feet, grabbing the shield and barely restrained himself from killing her where she stood. She looked different than she had in the car. The hank of dark hair that had obscured one side of her face was pulled back revealing a glowing blue light at her temple and a long clear cord that ran down under the neck of her jacket. 

“You’ll want to calm down,” she said to Steve. “I’m the only one who can save your friend.” 

“I don’t believe you. You told me that the cure was inside the device-” 

She nodded, crossing her arms over her chest. “I needed more time. He won’t last much longer now,” she gestured at Tony who sat up just in time to vomit a gout of blood. 

“Tony,” Steve breathed, kneeling beside him and holding Tony’s shoulders as he finished coughing. The smaller man leaned back against him, his breathing ragged, his face deathly pale. 

“Tell me what you want,” he said to Agent Ross. 

“Steve...don’t,” Tony managed, then coughed as more blood and spit leaked from his mouth. 

“Tell me what you want!” he yelled. 

“It’s very easy,” she said. Steve was amazed that she could be so calm, almost disinterested in what was unfolding before her. “I was hired to kill you. Both of you.” 

“By who?” Tony wheezed. He moved away from Steve, getting to his knees away from the pile of his own sick. 

“Senator Greene,” she replied. 

“Figures.” 

“And?” Steve demanded. 

“You’re worth more alive than dead. Lots of people want to get their hands on you, Mr. Rogers.” 

“Captain,” Tony interjected. He seemed to be trying to get to his feet, which Steve immediately quashed by pushing gently on his shoulder. “Mister Rogers...puppets.” 

“What about your deal with the senator?’ Steve asked. 

Ross shrugged. “He paid me upfront,” she scoffed to indicate what she thought of that amateur move. “I’m done with him. You, though. You’re going to come with me, no resistance, no argument and I’ll see to it that your friend has a fighting chance of surviving.” 

“No,” Tony said immediately. 

“Hold on,” Steve interjected. 

“Steve,  _ no _ ,” the other man repeated, coughing, clutching his chest. 

“How do I know you won’t just leave him for dead?” Steve asked, getting to his feet. 

Ross shrugged. “You don’t. But your chances are much better with me than without. No one is coming to save you.” 

“You don’t know that.” 

“I do.” 

They stared at one another. Tony wheezed. Steve looked down at him and Tony shook his head, unable to muster speech. There really wasn’t much of a choice. 

Ross must have seen the change on his face because she withdrew a pair of manacles from the back of her belt. They looked to be enhanced in some way, they were fairly buzzing with electricity. “Come with me and he lives. Try to kill me, or refuse and he dies,” she reiterated. 

Steve looked down at Tony one more time. Tony stared back. 

“Okay,” Steve said, setting aside the shield. 

Tony let out a strangled noise and launched himself into motion. Steve turned and saw what he was doing only a second too late. 

“Tony, no!” Steve screamed. 

Ross, eyes wide with the same realization, tried to withdraw her sidearm, but Tony was faster. Even moments away from death, Tony was still faster than both of them. He fired the gauntlet directly into her chest and she staggered back against the door, gasping. 

It took her a long time to die. Steve kicked the gun from her hand, but didn’t stay to watch. Instead he rushed to Tony’s side where he lay shaking on the floor. 

“Why did you do that?!” he demanded, yelling in the other man’s face. “You stupid...Tony…” 

“It’s okay,” Tony managed, his voice a whisper. “It’s okay, Steve. I had to.” 

“You…” Steve said quietly, overcome. He put his arm around Tony’s shoulders, propping him up against his chest. “Tony, I can’t lose you.” 

Tony shook his head. “Better me....than you.” He pushed weakly against Steve’s chest and the bigger man realized he was trying to turn himself around. Steve pushed him so that they could look at each other, their faces inches apart. “I need,” Tony wheezed. He coughed and blood splattered onto Steve’s face. He flinched, but did not turn away. 

“Tony, don’t try to speak, okay? Save your strength. Just stay here,” he glanced at Ross to find her lying still on the floor. “I’m going to see what she has on her. I’ll get you out of here.” 

Tony shook his head. His eyelids were drooping. “No. Steve. I need...I can’t….” 

“Tony, please,” Steve begged, eyes full of tears. 

“I...love you.” 

“Okay, okay, I hear you. I know. Me too,” Steve said in a rush, hugging him close. Tony felt frail and weightless in his arms. “Let me get us out of here.” 

He laid Tony gently down on the floor and hurried over to Ross’s prone body. He tore through her pockets until, with a rush of triumph unlike any he had felt before, he found a phone. “Tony, I’ve…” he began, but trailed off when he looked back. Tony lay on the ground, eyes closed. He wasn’t breathing. 

  
  


Tony Stark was in a coma. The doctors would only let one person at a time in to sit with him, so Steve parked himself in the waiting room as Pepper and Rhodey both took turns. When they asked if he wanted to see Tony he shook his head. He just wanted to be nearby. When they told him to go home and get some rest he politely declined. He just wanted to be nearby. When Maria Hill told him she wanted to debrief with him about the incident he waved her away. He was grateful to her and the team for showing up when they did, but he wasn’t going anywhere. Not until Tony woke up. 

“That could be months,” Hill said, “Or not at all.” 

Steve shook his head. He was going to stay. 

  
  


Tony opened his eyes. He stared at an uninteresting ceiling for a moment then turned his head to see Rhodey kicked back with his feet up on the bed. 

“Hey,” he said, smiling. “I ate your jello.” 

“You dick,” Tony rasped. 

“Not like you needed it,” Rhodes replied, taking his feet down and leaning forward. “How are you feeling, slugger? Should I go get a nurse?’ 

Tony shook his head. “How long... ?” 

“You’ve been out for three days. You came around for a little while yesterday, said something no one could understand, then went back to sleep. That’s when I knew we didn’t have to worry.” 

Tony tested his movement and found that he was sore, but nothing seemed broken. “I’m getting too old to keep waking up in the hospital.” 

“Tell me about it,” Rhodey agreed. 

“What happened to…?” he gestured vaguely. 

“The chick that kidnapped you and Cap? You got her, Tony. Good call with the improvised EMP. How did you know she had an artificial heart?” 

“The thingy,” he wiggled his fingers next to his temple. “The cybernetic enhancements. I had a hand in designing them years ago. They’re often installed at the same time as an artificial heart. I took a gamble,” he said with a shrug. 

“No shit you did,” Rhodey said with a whistle. 

“Stupid bitch didn’t do her research,” Tony groused, sitting up. “Told me I was expendable.” 

“She obviously didn’t know you well enough. Anyway, we got Greene too. Found records of him paying the chick a significant sum of money. Money he didn’t have, actually. Did you know that he was up to his eyeballs in gambling debts? Among other such unsavory things. No wonder the guy was so butthurt about the Avengers diverting his government cash flow.” 

“A corrupt politician? Surely you jest.” 

Rhodey chuckled. 

“Pepper?” Tony asked. His friend shook his head. “Okay.” 

“She came by for a while, but you know how it is. Busy lady, your Pepper.” 

Tony shook his head. “Not mine.” 

“You do have someone else waiting for you, though,” Rhodes said brightly. “Steve Rogers set up shop in the waiting room when you guys arrived and he hasn’t left since.” Tony’s head snapped up so fast it made him dizzy. “I keep telling him to go home, but he won’t listen to sense. Stubborn as a mule, that one.” 

Tony sighed. “No kidding.” 

“Should I send him in?” Rhodey asked, rising. 

“No.” 

“Tony, the guy hasn’t so much left for a bagel in three-” 

“I said  _ no _ . You can go get me some more damn jello and tell Steve I said to go home. I don’t want to see him.” 

Rhodey frowned, but did not argue. “Okay, Tony,” he said. 

  
  


It took three months for Steve to get Tony alone, and that was not from lack of trying. Though he felt like an idiot with growing frequency, the soldier persisted regardless. He called, he dropped by unannounced, he left messages, he sent texts, he did nearly everything except actually breaking down the door again. Radio silence. 

_ Take the hint _ , he told himself lying in his cold bed alone at night. And he would promise to stop. But then the sun would come up and he would get out of bed and find that he simply could not. He could not give up. 

Finally, Tony was lured to Avengers Tower by a tech emergency only he could solve. He arrived with the air of a man far too busy for these trifling matters, but nevertheless willing to mingle with the peasants for a time. 

“All right, where’s the fire?” he asked loudly, entering the empty kitchen and looking around. 

Steve stepped out from the hallway, hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans. Tony turned, noticed him, and looked for a moment like he might bolt.

“Coffee maker is broken,” Steve said evenly, pointing at the offending device. It was on the floor of the kitchen in about a thousand pieces. 

“I can see that,” Tony said with a sour expression. “You realize that doesn’t exactly constitute an emergency.” 

“You haven’t seen Natasha before she gets her morning cup of joe.” 

That made Tony smile, which felt like a huge win. Steve risked coming closer. 

“You’ve been doing a very effective job of dodging me.” 

Tony didn’t look at him. “Don’t take it personally. I-” 

“You know, the funny thing is that I  _ am _ taking it personally. Tony, we went through something together, you and I.” 

“Yeah, something I’d rather not talk about,” Tony said, turning away. 

Steve followed him. “Why not? You afraid I’ll lecture you about throwing yourself into danger to save me?” 

“Nice talking to you, Cap, but I’ve got to-ah, hey!” he yelped when Steve took hold of him and backed him very slowly and deliberately up against a wall. His hands were on Tony’s biceps, feeling the warmth of his body even through the expensive suit jacket. 

“Or are you worried that I’ll want to talk more about what you said to me?” 

Tony tried hard to affect disinterest, but it didn’t take. “Things were said. Can we just...not?” 

“No,” Steve said simply and kissed him. 

Tony made a noise of surprise, his lips twisting underneath Steve’s. He made a motion that started out as a push and ended up as an embrace. His arms wrapped tightly around Steve, pulling him closer so that their bodies fitted together like they were always meant to. Steve pressed him into the wall, deepening the kiss and bringing his hands up to the sides of Tony’s face. 

They stayed like that for a long time, grasping, touching, kissing, clinging. Tony was the first one to break the kiss, but only so that he could rip the suit jacket from his back and toss it onto the floor. “Are we alone?” he demanded. 

Steve nodded, a little stunned. “You...want to? Now?’ 

“ _ Yes _ . Don’t you think we’ve waited long enough?” 

Steve kissed him in answer, fingers running through Tony’s dark hair. They stripped each other quite effectively for two people joined at the mouth, each taking brief diversions to kiss and tease a nipple, the side of Tony’s neck, the skin over Steve’s clavicle, before coming back to tangle their tongues. 

Tony, who was still mostly trapped against the wall, managed to slide himself down enough that he could kiss and lick at the taut muscles of Steve’s stomach, inching down and down until…

“Ah!” Steve cried, throwing his head back. He braced his hands against the wall and groaned as Tony’s mouth engulfed his cock in wet heat. “Tony....my god.” 

Tony did not answer, intent on the task at hand. Trapped between Steve and the wall he didn’t have a lot of room to maneuver, but he did his best with what he had. Twisting his tongue around the underside of Steve’s dick, he wrung a desperate moan out of the other man. His hand snaked down and massaged his own cock, which was practically begging for attention by this point. 

“Tony...I want to...can I fuck you?” Steve breathed after a few minutes of overwhelming sensation. 

The smaller man popped up immediately. “Yes,” he said breathlessly. “We need lube.” 

“We have...olive oil?” Steve offered, casting about for something, anything. 

Tony shrugged. “I’ve done it with weirder stuff than that.” 

Steve let that comment pass, filing it away for later discussion, and moved to snatch the bottle of oil off the counter. He had to navigate the broken shards of the coffee pot, which he did deftly and as quickly as humanly possible. Then he grabbed Tony and lifted him easily onto the center island, prompting a bark of surprised laughter from the smaller man. He lay back, stroking his cock and smiling up at Steve. It was everything. 

He fumbled the top off the bottle and smeared some on his dick, coating his fingers as well. He slid them into Tony slowly one at a time and watched the other man’s face contort with pleasure. 

“Ah, Steve,” he sighed, pulling his legs up to brace his feet on the countertop. “God, I’ve waited so long for this.” 

“Me too,” Steve said, curling his fingers and laughing when Tony lifted his hips off the counter with a yelp. “Like that?” 

“Oh, fuck. You better get inside me right now or we’re gonna have problems.” 

“Yes, sir,” Steve said, hastily smearing more oil on himself and groaning at the pressure. He pushed his cock up against Tony’s entrance and held it there for a moment, just to see the other man squirm. Then, slowly but forcefully, he pushed inside. 

They both cried out. Tony said his name while they fucked, driving Steve to new heights of pleasure. He tried to drag it out, make it last, wring every last moment out of this incredible experience, but as with all fantasies it was over far too soon. Steve drove himself into Tony with a gasp and felt his climax peak. “Tony! Agh!” he roared.  

Tony followed afterward, stroking his dick furiously and nearly sobbing with the intensity of his release. Steve lay half on top of him for a moment after that, totally overwhelmed. 

“Oh my god,” Tony breathed. “I can’t believe that just happened.” 

“I know,” Steve said, pulling back to grin at him. “No regrets, I hope?” 

“None at all. Just not what I thought I would be doing with my afternoon when I woke up this morning is all.” 

Steve regarded him seriously for a moment, his cock still softening inside Tony’s body. “I love you.” 

Tony looked almost embarrassed. “You don’t have to-”

“I know I don’t have to. I mean it. I realize that you may have said what you said under duress, but I need you to know that I love you anyway. Even if you-” 

“Okay, okay, hold on,” Tony said, pushing himself up on his elbows. “I’m not taking it back. I meant what I said.” 

“Well, then,” Steve said, and kissed him. “There’s no problem, is there?” 

“No,” Tony concluded. “I guess not.” 

“So why were you avoiding me?” Steve continued, resisting Tony’s attempts to squirm away from him. 

“I thought...you know, I thought you might feel weird. About what happened.” 

Steve frowned. “And my repeated attempts to get in touch with you weren’t a clue to the contrary?” 

Tony did at least have the good grace to look abashed. “I thought you were trying to make me feel better.” 

“You are an idiot,” Steve concluded. 

“Probably,” Tony sighed. “Now will you get off of me? My ass is freezing.” 

“On one condition.” 

“Yes?” 

“Say it again.” 

“What?” Tony asked, bewildered. 

“You know what.” 

He sighed. “Are you always going to be this insufferable?” 

“Probably,” Steve admitted with a shrug. 

“I love you,” Tony said, looking into his eyes. They both smiled. 

“See, was that so hard?” Steve joked, sitting back so Tony could get up. 

“Shut up. I take it all back,” Tony groused. 

Steve gathered him in his arms, pressing their naked bodies together heedless of the drying semen or the fact that they were in the middle of the common area. “I’m sorry it took you almost dying, but I am glad that we came to our senses.” 

Tony snorted. He leaned up and kissed Steve gently. “Jury’s still out on that one, sweetheart. But, yes. There’s hope for us yet.” \

Steve grinned at him. “I agree.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for taking the time to read this piece (man, it turned out long!). I hope you enjoyed yourself. Feedback of any stripe is always welcome - I love it all. Already working on my next project - it'll be a bit darker (oooh, angsty). Thanks again!
> 
> UPDATE: You guys! I'm officially a published author! Woo! If you want to check out my book you can find it here: https://www.cmrandles.com/books (it's chock full of juicy romance and gay porn, I promise!)


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